Forex; Trend line Strategy

Forex Tips & Strategy : How To Draw Proper Trend Line
Drawing trend line is sometime that is very subjective for most traders. From those trading books that are in the market, trend line is drawn by joining 2 or more swing lows or 2 or more swing highs. However the problem lies with there are a lot of swing highs and lows in most chart and which one should you use and which one should you ignore?

This is a topic that is suggested by one of our active newsletter subscriber who is a fellow trader. Therefore I am going to spend some time on this post to go through how you can draw proper trend line.

Basically there are 2 main types of trend line you can draw and they are

1) Common Sense Trend Line: This type of trend line is the most commonly used by traders and it basically makes use of 2 or more swing highs or lows to connect to form the line. Swing lows are formed when there is a candle that has 2 higher candles on its left and right and swing highs are formed when there is a candle that has 2 lower candles on its left and right.

Since there are quite a number of swing highs and lows in a particular chart, you need to be able to prioritise which are the more important ones.

Swing low usually forms a V-shaped pattern while swing high forms an N-shaped pattern. For swing low, the one with more higher candles on its left and right will be more significant than the one with lesser higher candles on its left and right and it works the same for the swing highs except that you should be looking for more lower candles.


When drawing common sense trend line, you will try to connect a few points and the line that has the most points connected will be the line you should be using to trade. The more swing highs or lows you manage to connect to form a trend line, the more powerful it is because there is more time the market is trying to break the line but failed and it will serve as a strong support or resistance.

One more thing to take note, if the trend line is breached by a candle, it will be no longer useful and you need to redraw another new trend line.


Personally I use a mix of these 2 ways of drawing trend line. The common sense trend line sometime serves as a long term trend line for me while the Tom Demark trend line serves as a short term trend line for me and both of them works rather well so far.
Hope that this post on how to draw trend line is useful for you.

--- by ; Kelvin / forex tips

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Forex Scalping Strategy

Urban Towers Scalping Strategy
Indicators : Blue MA
Time Frame : 15min

Description : During a trend, when the market retraces to the blue MA with at least 3 consecutive lower highs (3 towers), we enter at the break of the high of the last high. Ok let me explain in details one by one.

Steps to Follow :

- Price is above the blue MA trend is up
- Price is below the blue MA trend is down
- Market retraces towards the blue MA with 3 consecutive lower highs (in a uptrend)
- At the break of the high of the last candle, we enter long (in a uptrend)


Trade Example

Alright, what do we know right off the bat by looking at this. We know the market is in a uptrend because the market is above the blue MA. The market retraced to the blue line with 3 consecutive lower highs (3 towers) as we can see the red candles above. Next, we entered long at the break of the high of the last retracement candle - which in this case is 3rd tower as we can see above

Now here is a example of a �no good trade�.
this example, the market was in a uptrend, it did a 1, 2, 3 tower retrace but it never had a breakout on the high of the 3rd tower, in fact, the market continued down and changed to a down trend. This example is to show that this strategy helps avoid many fake trades.

--- SBJ ---- by ; Navin, UrbanFx ------

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Forex Technical Indicators

If you are new to forex trading, do you know which types of technical indicators are for what kinds of usage? And if you are already an experienced forex trader, are you using the correct combinations of technical indicators to help you profit consistently in the forex market If w:you are still not sure, we'll discuss the following 4 different types of forex technical indicators below
1. Trend Indicators - Also known as Directional Indicators. I have always reminded my students, 'Trend is your best friend and always trade in the direction of a trend'. A forex trend may be quite subjective to different traders as they may have different views on trendiness. So those trend indicators out there in the forex market can help traders detect the starting and ending of a trend. Some of the more popular trend following indicators includes MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence), MA (Moving Average), Parabolic SAR. Depending just on trend indicators is not enough, you may need Momentum Indicator(s) to enter and/or exit a trade.
2. Momentum indicator - Also known as Strength Indicators. It is described as the speed of a move in price over a period of time. They are oscillators which are able to indicate whether the forex market is in the overbought or oversold regions. If they have risen to the overbought zone, there is high possibility that the price will be going down, and if they have fallen to oversold zone, there is high possibility price will be going up. Some of the more popular oscillating indicators in forex trading include Stochastic, Momentum, RSI (Relative Strength Index), CCI (Commodity Channel Index).

3. Volatility indicators - Also known as Bands Indicators. Often, a change in volatility will lead to a change in price. Therefore, we can see how active the forex market is just by looking at the price ranges. You may want to trade when there is a dramatic change in price movements, which suggests that the market is actively trading forex
. Some of the more popular Volatility Indicator includes BB (Bollinger Bands, ATR (Average True Range), Price Envelopes

4. Volume indicator - They are used to show the volume of forex trading and are useful to confirm the direction of a trend, a reversal or a breakout. Price movements increase when the volume increases, low volume may warn of a reversal in a forex trade. If a currency pair trades from a narrow range and then breaks out on high volume, this is a strong signal and may suggest a breakout. Some of the more widely used Volume Indicator includes DemandIndex, Chaikin Money Flow, Money Flow Index, Ease Of Movement, OBV (On Balance Volume).
I'm sure that after the above discussions, you should have a better idea of the different types of forex technical indicators. While they can greatly help you in technical analysis and make trading decisions, I want to stress that NO forex indicators is holy grail. The
indicators are just a confirmation of history and a guide for the future. Most importantly, you need to know the right combination of the forex technical indicators to get you profitable consistently in the long haul. You can find a forex trading system which has a very good combination of indicators in my forex ebook which I give for FREE. Good trading to all.

---- SBJ ---- by; Danniel s ------

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FOREX ; Diversfying Trading Strategies

The critical difference between who will win and who will lose in the business of Forex market trading is learning how to manage your money. For example, if 100 Forex traders begin trading by using a system with 60% of winning odds, only about 5 of those traders would see a profit by the end of the year. Despite those 60% winning odds, only 95% of those Forex traders will lose because of poor money management skills. When entering a trading system one must have great money management skills in order to succeed. Traders enter the Forex system to make a profit, after all, not to lose money.

The amount of money you will put on a trade and the risks you are willing to accept for that trade is money management. It is very important to understand the concept of managing money and to understand the difference between managing money and trading decisions, in order to diversify your Forex trading strategies. There are a number of different strategies that can be employed that will aspire to preserve your balance from any high-risk liabilities.

To begin with an understanding of the �core equity� is a necessity. Basically the core equity illustrates the starting balance of the account and what amounts are in the open positions. Your money management will greatly depend on this equity so it�s very important to understand the meaning of core equity. For instance, if you have an open account with a balance of $5,000 and you enter a trade with $1,000 your core equity will be $4,000. If you enter another trade for another $1,000 then your core equity would be $3,000.

From the outset, it�s best to diversify trades by using several different currencies. By only trading one currency pair, you will generate very few entry signals. For example, if you have an account balance of $100,000 and have an open position for $10,000 then that makes your core equity $90,000. If you choose to enter on a second position, then calculate the 1% risk from your core equity, but not your starting account balance. This would mean that the second trade would not exceed $900. Then if you decide to enter a third position, with a core equity of $80,000 then the risk from that trade should not surpass $800. The key is to diversify the lots between all currencies that have a low correlation.

For example, if you want to trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD with a $10,000 (1% risk) standard position size in money management, then it would be safe to trade $5,000 in each EUR/USD and GBP/USD. This way, you will only be risking 0.5% on each position.

When trying to diversify your Forex trading strategies, it�s very important to understand the strategies of the Martingale and the Anti-Martingale. The Martingale rule means: increasing your risks when you�re losing. Gamblers worldwide who claim that one should increase the size of a trade even when one is losing have adopted this strategy. Basically, gamblers use the rule in the following way: bet $20, if you lose bet $40, if you loose bet $80, if you lose bet $160, if you lose bet $320, etc.

The strategy is to assume that if you lose more than four times, then the chances to win become bigger and as you add more money, you will be able to recover from your loss. Although there are many people who choose to use this strategy, the truth is, the odds are still the same 50/50 regardless of the previous losses. Even if you lose five times in a row, the odds for your sixth bet, and even for those there after, are still 50/50. This is a common mistake made by those who are new to the trading business.

For instance, if a trader started with a $10,000 balance and lost four trades of $1,000 a piece for a total of $4,000 then the traders remaining balance would be $6,000. If the trader thinks there is a higher chance of winning the fifth trade and increases the size of the position four times, enough to recover from the loss, then if the fifth trade loses the trader will be down to $2,000. A loss like this can never be recovered back to the $10,000 starting balance. No experienced trader would use such a risky gambling tactic as the result is negative - losing all the money in a short period of time.

------ SBY ----- by; . David Mclauchlan -------

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FOREX ; Statistical Trading � Getting the edge

Statistical Trading consists of using statistical tools on historical price data in order to improve trading returns. The idea behind statistical trading is that if a trader can find even a slight statistical edge, then the expected return over a large number of trades will be positive.
I'm talking about the same kind of edge that a casino owner or an insurance company has. This is a statistical edge based on the law of large numbers. The casino doesn't know if a particular spin of the roulette wheel will be a win or a loss, but they know that after 1000 spins they will very likely be richer. Their edge is simple to describe using the game of roulette as an example. The player has a 1/38 chance of winning on any given spin, but will only receive 36 times their money if they win. So for 3,800 spins, the player will win 100 of them on average, yielding $3,600. But the player will lose the other 3,700 spins at a dollar each for a loss of $3,700. So what's the average take for the house? It's $100 for every 3800 spins, or a little under 3 cents per spin. It adds up...and all other casino games of pure chance (these don't include poker or blackjack which can involve some skill) are variations on this theme. That's why casinos get rich and gamblers go broke.
Insurance companies get rich in pretty much the same way. The company has no idea if a particular person will die this year, but they do have a pretty accurate idea how many people out of 1,000,000 policyholders with a given profile will die this year. Let's say that statistically the death rate of a given class of people (males over 55, smokers, and in moderate health for instance) is 4% so that we expect 40,000 to die this year. If each policy pays $10,000 for a death, then the company expects to shell out $400 million dollars in benefits...wow! So how much should the company charge in premiums for those one million policies each year then? Well how about $500 each? That gives the company $500 million in revenues for an expected $400 million benefit payout, leaving $100 million for salaries, expenses, profits and whatever. That's their statistical edge.
Now let's look at some ways that we can use this idea of a "statistical edge" in trading.
A very common way that traders try to apply the ideas of statistics is by planning trades in such a way that the potential gain exceeds the potential loss. This is the classic "cut losses short and let profits run" argument. For instance if you set up a trade so that you lose only $100 if you're wrong but gain $300 if you're right, then you only have to be right 1/4 of the time to break even. That's because for every four trades (on average) you would lose $100 three times and gain $300 one time, which is a wash (not counting commissions). And any numbskull can be right more than a quarter of the time right?
Right. Sure. So why aren't we all rich? After trading currencies for a while in 2004, I figured out what the problem was. A tight stop and a wide target will tend to make you wrong a lot simply because it's easier for the stop to get hit. On the other extreme, suppose
suppose you decide that you like to have a lot of winning trades, so you place very wide stops and very close price targets. Fine, now you'll win a lot of the time but the amounts will be small. And one loss, although uncommon, will tend to wipe out many little wins. So no matter where you are on the "trading setup" spectrum, wide stops and tight targets, tight stops and wide targets, or any combination in between, statistically it ends up being a wash. There is no intrinsic "edge" in any given trading setup scheme, including "cutting losses short and letting profits run." Heresy, I know.
Getting a real statistical edge requires that you can identify situations in which the price tends to move in such a way that you can set up trades which have a positive expected return. Expected return is just the percentage of wins multiplied by the win amount, minus the percentage of losses multiplied by the loss amount. An example will make this clearer.
Suppose you know that every time the USD/JPY rate crosses above its 20 day moving average, the price tends to move up more often than it moves down. Investigating this in more detail using historical data, you determine that there is a 40% probability that the price rises by 25 pips before it ever drops by 10 pips. Now even though this only happens less than half the time, it still allows you to set up trades with a positive expected return. This is because if you set your target at 25 pips and your stop at 10 pips, you will win 25 pips 40% of the time and lose only 10 pips during the other 60% of the time. The expected return is:

(40% x 25 pips) - (60% x 10 pips) = 10 pips - 6 pips = 4 pips

So on the average, you can expect to get 4 pips per trade using this strategy, even though you lose most of the time! But remember that this whole example is predicated on the knowledge that a positive crossover of the 20 day moving average tends to skew the expected return in your favor. That's your edge in this example.

---- SBY ----- by. Scott Percival ---------

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Forex Trading Strategy

Forex - Killer Day Trading Strategy

Basically, getting into a market either long or short is based on the combined use of the daily trend line and the obtained forex killer signal. It's a basic swing strategy to exploit the current trend and further price breakout.

1) First, check the moving average of closing prices of all major currency pairs on a daily chart (i.e. by using 5, 10 or 20 Simple Moving Average trend lines), to find out the price is either trending up or down for the USD dollar.

2) Obtain price correlation among all major currency pairs to determine an overall bias to either go long or short on the USD dollar on the day. This is the first condition filter.

3) Then, generate forex killer signals for all major pairs using shorter time periods (e.g. H1, M30 or M15).

4) When the forex killer signals are in line with the daily trend bias, enter the market long or short accordingly depending on the currency pair you choose to trade.

5) Stops must be in place whenever a condition disappears. You may follow the stop levels as suggested by the forex killer software, or you can choose to optimise your own risk reward ratio.

6) This strategy produces some good results with 30 minutes and 1 hour closing prices, and with 40-60 pips return for a position.

In summary, this simple strategy allows you to see the market better as a whole and pay less attention to the out-of-sync currency pairs. I would recommend you to check out and familiarise with the forex killer signal software, and use it as an analytical tool to assist trading and improve winning chances.

by Lloyd, ScoutForex.

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Forex Tips Strategy.

Forex EMA-WMA strategy
What do you need:

1. one hour or 30 minutes timeframe
2. 18-period EMA and 29-period EMA (draw them using red)
3. 5-period WMA and 12-period WMA (draw them using yellow)

18 and 29-period EMA are two red lines which form a tunnel, this helps you to predict the trend. 5 and 12-period WMA shows you when to enter the trend, and how strong the trend is on a short term.

When the red tunnel is narrow, or thew two lines form only one line, you should open a position according to the following rules:
1. Go long when the 5 and 12-period WMA are crossed, the red tunnel is up.
2. Go short when the 5 and 12-period WMA are crossed, the red tunnel is down.

Close your positions according to the following rules:

1. The price reached the high, and 5-period WMA goes under 12-period WMA. Close all your long positions.
2. The price reached the bottom, and 5-period WMA goes beyond 12-period WMA. Close all your short positions.

When the red tunnel is crossed, close all your positions, because a trend reversal is about to come.

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Forex Scalping Technique

Currency: ANY
Time frame: 1 hour + 30 min + 5 min.
Indicators: 14 EMA, 21 EMA, 50 EMA, Bollinger Band (20, 2).
Entry rules: Enter on 5 minutes chart.
On 5 minutes chart, for uptrend:
if 14 EMA is above 21 EMA,
then if both 14 EMA and 21 EMA are above 50 EMA,
then if 50 EMA is within the Bollinger Bands borders,
then...
go and check 30 min chart:
if price bar is a up-close bar and sitting on 14 EMA or 21 EMA
and same again:
if 14 EMA is above 21 EMA,
then if both 14 EMA and 21 EMA are above 50 EMA,
then if 50 EMA is within the Bollinger Bands borders,
then...
go Long...
OR go and check if 1 hour chart meet same conditions as for 30 min chart and then go Long.
If at least one condition is violated � stay away.
The reverse is for the downtrend:
Enter on 5 minutes chart.
On 5 minutes chart, for downtrend:
if 14 EMA is below 21 EMA,
then if both 14 EMA and 21 EMA are below 50 EMA,
then if 50 EMA is within the Bollinger Bands borders,
then...
go and check 30 min chart:
if price bar is a down-close bar and touching 14 EMA or 21 EMA
and same again:
if 14 EMA is below 21 EMA,
then if both 14 EMA and 21 EMA are below 50 EMA,
then if 50 EMA is within the Bollinger Bands borders,
then...
go Short... or go and check same rules for 1 hour chart and only then enter Short on 5 minutes chart.
Exit rules: exit when any of the conditions is violated or when the profit is high enough to close the trade.

--- by; Edward revy -------

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Forex ; Trailing Stops

Now that we have taken the necessary precautions to avoid catastrophic losses by using disciplined money management stops, it is appropriate to concentrate on strategies that are designed to accumulate and retain profits in the market. When properly implemented these strategies are intended to accomplish two important goals in trade management: they should allow profits to run, while at the same time they should protect open trade profits.

While their application is extremely wide, we do not believe that trailing stops are appropriate in all trading circumstances. Most of the trailing exits we will describe are specifically designed to allow profits to run indefinitely. Therefore they are best used with trend following type systems. In counter-trend trading, more aggressive exits are more suitable. The ?when you?ve got a profit, take it? philosophy works best when you are trading counter-trend, since the anticipated amount of profits is limited. However, to take quick profits in a trend is usually an exercise in frustration: we exit the market with a small profit only to watch the huge trend continue to move in our direction for days or months after our untimely exit. We therefore recommend using different exit strategies based on the underlying market condition. We will discuss the more aggressive exits later; for now we will concentrate on exits designed to accumulate large profits over time.

A thorough understanding of trailing stops is critical for trend-following traders. This is because trend following is typically associated with a lower percentage of profitable trades; which makes it particularly important to capture as much profit as possible when those large but infrequent trends occur. Typical trend followers make most of their profits by capturing only a few infrequent but very large trends, while managing to cut losses effectively during the more frequent sideways markets.

The rationale behind the use of the trailing stop is based on the anticipation of occasional extremely large trends and the possibilities of capturing substantial profits during these major trends. If the entry is timely and the market continues to trend in the direction of the trade, trailing stops are an excellent exit strategy that can enable us to capture a significant portion of that trend.

The trailing stops we will describe in this and following articles have similar characteristics that are important to understand as we use them to design our trading systems. Effective trailing stops can significantly increase the net profits gained in a trend-following system by allowing us to maximize and capture large profitable trades. The ratio of the average winning trade to the average losing trade is usually improved substantially by the use of trailing stops. However there are some negative characteristics of these stops. The number of profitable trades is sometimes reduced since these stops may allow modestly profitable trades to turn into losers. Also, occasional large retracements in open trade profits can make the use of these stops quite difficult psychologically. No trader enjoys seeing large profits reduced to small profits or watching profitable trades become unprofitable.

The Channel Exit

The simplest process for following a trend is to establish a stop that continuously moves in the direction of the trend using recent highest high or lowest low prices. For example, to follow prices in an uptrend, a stop may be placed at the lowest low of the last few bars; for a downtrend, the stop is placed at the highest high of the last few bars. The number of bars used to calculate the highest high or lowest low price depends on the room we wish to give the trade. The more bars back we use to set the stop, the more room we give the trade and consequently the larger the retracement of profits before the stop is triggered. Using a very recent high or low point enables us to take a quick exit on the trade.

This type of trailing stop is commonly referred to as a ?Channel Exit?. The ?channel? name comes from the appearance of a channel formed from using the highest high of X bars and the lowest low of X bars for short and long exits respectively. The name also derives from the popular entry strategy that uses these same points to enter trades on breakouts. Since we are focusing on exits and will be using only one boundary of the channel, the term ?channel? may be a slight misnomer, but we will continue to refer to these trailing exits by their commonly used name.

For most of our examples we will assume that we are working with daily bars but we could be working with bars of any magnitude depending on the type of system we are designing. A channel exit is extremely versatile and can work equally well with weekly bars or five-minute bars. Also keep in mind that any examples referring to long trades can be equally applicable to short trades.

The implementation of a channel exit is very simple. Suppose we have decided to use a 20-day channel exit for a long trade. For each day in the trade, we would determine the lowest low price of the last 20 days and place our exit stop at that point. Many traders may place their stops a few points nearer or further than the actual low price depending on their preferences. As the prices move in the direction of the trade, the lowest price of the last twenty days continually moves up, thus ?trailing? under the trade and serving to protect some of the profits accumulated. It is important to note that the channel stop moves only in the direction of the trade but never reverses direction. When prices fall back through the lowest low price of the last twenty days, the trade is exited using a sell stop order.

The first and obvious question to answer about channel exits is how many bars to use to pick the exit point. For example, should we set our stop at the lowest low of 5 days or the lowest low of 20 days, or some other number of days? The answer depends on the objectives of our system. A clearly stated set of objectives for the system is always very helpful at these important decision points. Do we want a long-term system with slow exits or do we want a short-term system with quicker exits? A longer channel length will usually allow more profits to accumulate over a long run if there are big trends. A shorter channel will usually capture more profits if there are smaller trends. In our research, we have found that long-term systems generally work well with a trailing exit at the lowest low or the highest high of the last 20 days or more. For intermediate term systems, use the lowest or highest price of between 5 to 20 days. For short-term systems, the lowest or highest price of between 1 to 5 days is usually optimal.

Trailing stops with a long-term channel accumulate the largest open profits if there is a sustained trend. However this method will also give back the largest amount of open profits when the stop is eventually triggered. Using a shorter channel can create a closer stop in order to preserve more open trade profits. As can be expected, the closer stop often does not allow profits to accumulate as nicely as the longer channel, and often causes us to be prematurely stopped out of a large trend. However, we have noticed that a very short channel length of between 1 to 3 bars is still highly effective in trailing a profitable trade in a runaway trend. The best type of channel exit to use in a runaway trend is a very short channel, for example 3 bars in length. We have observed that this exit in a strong trend often keeps us in a trade until we are close to the end of the trend.

It appears that there is a conflict of exit objectives here. A longer channel length will capture more profit but give back a large proportion of that profit; a shorter channel length will capture less profit, but protect more of what it has captured. How can we resolve this issue and create an exit that can both accumulate large profits, as well as protect these profits closely? A very effective exit technique calls for a long-term channel to be implemented at the beginning of the trade with the length of the channel gradually shortened as larger profits are accumulated. Once the trade is significantly profitable, or in a strongly trending move, the goal is to have a very short channel that gives back very little of the large open profit.

Here is an example of how this method might be implemented. At the beginning of a long trade, after setting our previously described money management stop to avoid any catastrophic losses, we will trail a stop at the lowest low of the last 20 days. This 20-day channel stop is usually far enough from the trade to avoid needless whipsaws and keep us in the trade long enough to begin accumulating some worthwhile profits. At some pre-determined level of profitability, which can be based on a multiple of the average true-range or some specific dollar amount of open profit, the channel length can be shortened to take us out of the trade at the lowest low of 10 days. If we are fortunate enough to reach another higher level of profitability, like 5 average true ranges of profit or some other large dollar amount, we can shorten the channel further so that we will exit at the lowest low of 5 days. At the highest level of profitability, perhaps a very rare occurrence, we might even be able to place our exit stop at the previous day?s low to protect the great profit we have accumulated. As you can see, this strategy allows plenty of room for profits to accumulate at the beginning of a trade and then tightens up the stops as profits are accumulated. The larger the profits, the tighter our exit stop. The more we have, the less we want to give back.

There is another way of improving the channel exit that is worthwhile to discuss: this is to contract (or expand) the traditional channels using the height of the channel, or some multiple of the average true range. How this might work is as follows: Supposing you are working with a 20-day channel exit. First you calculate the height of the channel, as measured by the distance between the highest 20-day high and the lowest 20-day low. Then you contract the channel by increasing the lowest low value and decreasing the highest high value previously obtained to determine the exit points. For instance, in a long trade, you could increase the lowest low price by 5% of the channel height or 5% of the average true range, and use that adjusted price as your exit stop. This creates a slightly tighter stop than the conventional channel. More importantly, it allows you to execute your trade before the multitude of stops that are already placed in the market at the 20-day low.

The last point can be considered an important disadvantage of the channel exit. The channel breakout methods are popular enough to cause a large number of entry and exit stops to be placed at previous lowest low and highest high prices. This can cause a significant amount of slippage when attempting to implement these techniques in your own trading. The method of adjusting the actual lowest low or highest high price by a percentage of the overall channel height or the average true range is one possible way to move your stops away from the stops placed by the general public and thereby achieve better executions on your exits.

---- by ; Chuck LeBeau -------

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Diversifying Fx Trading Strategies

The critical difference between who will win and who will lose in the business of Forex market trading is learning how to manage your money. For example, if 100 Forex traders begin trading by using a system with 60% of winning odds, only about 5 of those traders would see a profit by the end of the year. Despite those 60% winning odds, only 95% of those Forex traders will lose because of poor money management skills. When entering a trading system one must have great money management skills in order to succeed. Traders enter the Forex system to make a profit, after all, not to lose money.

The amount of money you will put on a trade and the risks you are willing to accept for that trade is money management. It is very important to understand the concept of managing money and to understand the difference between managing money and trading decisions, in order to diversify your Forex trading strategies. There are a number of different strategies that can be employed that will aspire to preserve your balance from any high-risk liabilities.

To begin with an understanding of the �core equity� is a necessity. Basically the core equity illustrates the starting balance of the account and what amounts are in the open positions. Your money management will greatly depend on this equity so it�s very important to understand the meaning of core equity. For instance, if you have an open account with a balance of $5,000 and you enter a trade with $1,000 your core equity will be $4,000. If you enter another trade for another $1,000 then your core equity would be $3,000.

From the outset, it�s best to diversify trades by using several different currencies. By only trading one currency pair, you will generate very few entry signals. For example, if you have an account balance of $100,000 and have an open position for $10,000 then that makes your core equity $90,000. If you choose to enter on a second position, then calculate the 1% risk from your core equity, but not your starting account balance. This would mean that the second trade would not exceed $900. Then if you decide to enter a third position, with a core equity of $80,000 then the risk from that trade should not surpass $800. The key is to diversify the lots between all currencies that have a low correlation.

For example, if you want to trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD with a $10,000 (1% risk) standard position size in money management, then it would be safe to trade $5,000 in each EUR/USD and GBP/USD. This way, you will only be risking 0.5% on each position.

When trying to diversify your Forex trading strategies, it�s very important to understand the strategies of the Martingale and the Anti-Martingale. The Martingale rule means:
increasing your risks when you�re losing. Gamblers worldwide who claim that one should increase the size of a trade even when one is losing have adopted this strategy. Basically, gamblers use the rule in the following way: bet $20, if you lose bet $40, if you loose bet $80, if you lose bet $160, if you lose bet $320, etc.

The strategy is to assume that if you lose more than four times, then the chances to win become bigger and as you add more money, you will be able to recover from your loss. Although there are many people who choose to use this strategy, the truth is, the odds are still the same 50/50 regardless of the previous losses. Even if you lose five times in a row, the odds for your sixth bet, and even for those there after, are still 50/50. This is a common mistake made by those who are new to the trading business.

For instance, if a trader started with a $10,000 balance and lost four trades of $1,000 a piece for a total of $4,000 then the traders remaining balance would be $6,000. If the trader thinks there is a higher chance of winning the fifth trade and increases the size of the position four times, enough to recover from the loss, then if the fifth trade loses the trader will be down to $2,000. A loss like this can never be recovered back to the $10,000 starting balance. No experienced trader would use such a risky gambling tactic as the result is negative - losing all the money in a short period of time.

---- by David Mclauchlan --------

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Forex ; Stop Loss Strategies

Here's a problem faced by many (including myself) new traders who are working with limited funds

The first problem is that you cannot afford large losses of fifty or one hundred pips because after ten or so losers your account has been decimated.

But that sets up the flip side and the second problem, which is getting stopped out of trades because the Stop Losses are too tight. Talk about a Catch-22!

It's heartbreaking getting stopped out of a trade and then watching it reverse and turn into a winner after you've been clobbered...and here's the danger for new traders

After getting frustrated this way a few times you set wider stops and lose larger sums of money.

So, what to do?
I have had good success, suffered smaller losses and stayed in more winners by employing Bollinger, 8sma and 21 sma.
Choose any pair, open a one hour chart and study how the price behaves. If the price is not going to pass through both averages and head to the opposite Bollinger Band (or close to it), it will often bounce off either the 8 or the 21. Sometimes it will pass through one of the averages and then bounce off the other.
Try setting your stops on the opposite moving average of your trade +10 pips. (Keep an eye on support and resistance levels too!) The thing is you have to monitor this and adjust the stop as the trade progresses, but the bottom line is that you can set wider stops with confidence. Other times, you can set tighter stops and not risk as much of your account balance.

--- by pzalvo / FxStrtgRvl ------

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Forex Trend Trading: The Early Bird Gets the Cash

Trend trading is where the big money is in the Forex market. While there is money to be made in counter-trending markets, there is only so much that can be made when the market is essentially moving sideways.

Trading when the market trends is where there is the opportunity to make (and if you're on the wrong side without a stop-loss, possibly lose) major money.

A market goes into a trend anytime there are more buyers than sellers or more sellers than buyers over a prolonged period of time. This trend can be with prices going up (more buyers than sellers) or down (more sellers than buyers). There is money to be made regardless of which way the trend goes, since all trading is done with pairs.

Figuring out the best way to trade trends involves knowing extensive technical analysis, so having a proven and profitable trading system helps immensely. Without a prove and profitable trading system, it's very unlikely that over the long run, you will profit from Forex trend trading.

While there are all sorts of technical tools for analyzing trades, the simplest way to spot a trend, or what might be the beginning of a trend, is to watch and see if each time period's high keeps getting higher, indicating the market is steadily trending up in price, or if each period's low continues to get lower, indicating a downward trend in price.

If you decide to use bands to help your trend trading, remember that a basic rule when using bands is to wait and see when the high price penetrates the upper band. This is your signal that an upward trend is about to start. You want to buy when that price penetrates the upper band and go long, with a trailing stop loss. There's a good chance the market will make an upward trend that a long position can profit from.

When the price penetrates the lowest band of your corridor, you want to sell and go short, watching the market for any confirmations on any further trends, counter-trends, or pivot points that indicate a trend reversal.

The basic goal of trend trading strategies is always the same. While you don't want to be the first to test the market, once a market trend reveals itself: join the move early!

Then hold your position, making as much money as possible, until the trend reverses and then get out. This is where using a trailing stop loss can help maximize the profits you earn from any market movement.

Trend trading is where the big money is at, and recognizing and getting in on trends early will make you a very happy (and wealthy) trader in the Forex market.

--- by Jason fielder ------

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Forex Tips and Strategy

Use an RSI Indicator to Make Your Forex Trading More Profitable

When it comes to forex-based technical analysis, using the relative strength index (RSI) indicator or your chart can give you insight into potential trading opportunities.

First, let's talk about what the RSI is, how it is set up on your chart, and how it can be used to decide when to enter the market.

The RSI is an oscillator, meaning that it will be separate from price data but still on the same chart and it will go up and down (oscillate) in value from 0 to 100.

When it comes to setting up your RSI indicator on the chart, the most popular setting is a 14-day period, though it is possible to tweak this setting to fit your own strategy.

Keep in mind though, that the longer the period is on your RSI indicator, the less frequently it will give trading signals, though the signals that it does give can be considered more reliable.

If the period is much shorter (like 8 or 9 instead of 14), the oscillator will be much more volatile and can give false signals more frequently, so it is important to find a balance.

Now when it comes to actually reading the RSI for trading signals, there are two main methods of doing this. With the first one, the values 30 and 70 are of critical importance (remember the RSI always gives a value between 0-100).

Typically, the lows and highs of the RSI will be below 30 and above 70, so when the RSI reaches this level and stays there, you can be sure that when it changes direction and heads closer to 50 then you will see a trend or market reversal.

For example, you are using a 10-minute bar chart and 14-period RSI. You see that the RSI has crossed the 70 line, moved to around 80 for maybe 40 minutes, and is now climbing back down. This could be a good indication that the market prices will follow and this could be a good time to sell. Your indication to enter would be when the RSI crosses 70 and continues going down.

The other popular way to trade the RSI is to use the number 50 as a center line or deviation line. This means that when the RSI crosses the center line and continues to climb steadily, this could be an indication to buy.

Conversely, if the RSI crosses the center line and continues to decline steadily, this could be a good indication to sell.

One important thing to always remember when you are using the RSI indicator on your charts is that the main purpose of this oscillator is to convey the current strength of the market, and whether or not a trend is likely to continue or reverse. Happy Trading!

--- by; Marcus Mst ------

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Forex ; Diversifying Trading Strategies

The critical difference between who will win and who will lose in the business of Forex market trading is learning how to manage your money. For example, if 100 Forex traders begin trading by using a system with 60% of winning odds, only about 5 of those traders would see a profit by the end of the year. Despite those 60% winning odds, only 95% of those Forex traders will lose because of poor money management skills. When entering a trading system one must have great money management skills in order to succeed. Traders enter the Forex system to make a profit, after all, not to lose money.

The amount of money you will put on a trade and the risks you are willing to accept for that trade is money management. It is very important to understand the concept of managing money and to understand the difference between managing money and trading decisions, in order to diversify your Forex trading strategies. There are a number of different strategies that can be employed that will aspire to preserve your balance from any high-risk liabilities.

To begin with an understanding of the �core equity� is a necessity. Basically the core equity illustrates the starting balance of the account and what amounts are in the open positions. Your money management will greatly depend on this equity so it�s very important to understand the meaning of core equity. For instance, if you have an open account with a balance of $5,000 and you enter a trade with $1,000 your core equity will be $4,000. If you enter another trade for another $1,000 then your core equity would be $3,000.

From the outset, it�s best to diversify trades by using several different currencies. By only trading one currency pair, you will generate very few entry signals. For example, if you have an account balance of $100,000 and have an open position for $10,000 then that makes your core equity $90,000. If you choose to enter on a second position, then calculate the 1% risk from your core equity, but not your starting account balance. This would mean that the second trade would not exceed $900. Then if you decide to enter a third position, with a core equity of $80,000 then the risk from that trade should not surpass $800. The key is to diversify the lots between all currencies that have a low correlation.

For example, if you want to trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD with a $10,000 (1% risk) standard position size in money management, then it would be safe to trade $5,000 in each EUR/USD and GBP/USD. This way, you will only be risking 0.5% on each position.

When trying to diversify your Forex trading strategies, it�s very important to understand the strategies of the Martingale and the Anti-Martingale. The Martingale rule means:
increasing your risks when you�re losing. Gamblers worldwide who claim that one should increase the size of a trade even when one is losing have adopted this strategy. Basically, gamblers use the rule in the following way: bet $20, if you lose bet $40, if you loose bet $80, if you lose bet $160, if you lose bet $320, etc.

The strategy is to assume that if you lose more than four times, then the chances to win become bigger and as you add more money, you will be able to recover from your loss. Although there are many people who choose to use this strategy, the truth is, the odds are still the same 50/50 regardless of the previous losses. Even if you lose five times in a row, the odds for your sixth bet, and even for those there after, are still 50/50. This is a common mistake made by those who are new to the trading business.

For instance, if a trader started with a $10,000 balance and lost four trades of $1,000 a piece for a total of $4,000 then the traders remaining balance would be $6,000. If the trader thinks there is a higher chance of winning the fifth trade and increases the size of the position four times, enough to recover from the loss, then if the fifth trade loses the trader will be down to $2,000. A loss like this can never be recovered back to the $10,000 starting balance. No experienced trader would use such a risky gambling tactic as the result is negative - losing all the money in a short period of time.
---- by David Mclauchlan --------

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